By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com


Testing will continue at a PFAS-contaminated site in Brighton, but officials are hopeful that residential wells are safe.

The building at 1279 Rickett Road in Brighton has housed many companies that performed fluid coupling, fabrication, engineering, and metal coating and finishing between 1985 and 2020. During a transaction earlier this year, levels of PFAS were found on the site that exceeded new limits established by the state in August. PFAS are a group of forever-chemicals that have been commonly used in many consumer products and fire firefighting foam over the past 50 years. They could possibly lead to adverse health effects.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and their Michigan PFAS Response Team (MPART) held an online webinar Monday for residents around the contaminated area. October testing at the site came back with levels still high, but lower than they were earlier this year. Project Manager Rebecca Taylor said the good news is that the contamination is shallow and that most of the residential wells in the area are deep. That and the presence of clay in the ground can help prevent harmful migration. If wells are older though, that could be a problem, and Taylor said they want to make certain the area closest to the site is tested. She said they’re not “dead certain” everything is alright, and want to make sure. To help do that, they have sent letters out to 20 homes asking for information they can use to schedule a water sample to be taken from an outside tap. This will be done to limit interactions because of COVID-19.

EGLE PFAS Operations manager Amy Peterson said depending on results, they’ll decide if the scope of where they are testing needs to be modified. Peterson said if the first round of sampling shows concern, they will expand it out to encompass more houses.


MPART has set up a webpage for updates and information on the Rickett Road site or any of the other PFAS investigation sites in the state.

To see the ongoing investigation at 1279 Rickett Road, Click Here.